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Gunnar Broad
'''Gunnar "Bull" Broad' has just returned from a losing war in Styria, but the war remains in him. After fighting on foreign shores, he finds out that his own country have changed and not for the better. Appearance and Personality Gunnar Broad is a big man with hardly any neck, great brawny shoulders, and hair clipped to stubble. He wears glasses, the new kind, mounted in thin wire; a reward for saving the life of Lord Marshal Mitterick. He also has two prominent tattoos: an axe and lightning, crossed over a shattered gatehouse, on the back of his fist; and five blue stars on his knuckles. Broad has a serious case of post-traumatic stress. He wants nothing more than to leave violence behind him, but has difficulty keeping his temper in check. He does best when he’s being told what to do. Notably he seems most comfortable taking orders from women; his wife, his daughter, Vick in Valbeck, or, at the end of the first book, by his new employer Savine. History Broad was a sheep farmer in Midderland, with his wife Liddy and daughter May, but nevertheless joined the army for King Jezal’s wars in Styria. He was a Ladderman, the storming party in a siege. Gunnar was always the first man up the ladder. He did it five times and lived to tell the tales, commemorated in the five star tattoos on his knuckles. A Little Hatred Gunnar Broad returns from the war a broken man, and barely holds it together when reunited with his family. Things have changed while he was away. The local lord, Lord Isher, has fenced in the common grazing land, and they’ve been forced to sell their flock. After all he’s sacrificed, he can barely hold in his rage. When three men turn up offering to buy their property, Broad loses it and beats the armed men to death with his bare hands. Broad and his family move to Valbeck, where Liddy finds works sowing, and May gets a job as a maid in Colonel Vallimir’s house, but Gunnar himself struggles to find regular work. He queues for a job at a brewery called Cadman’s Ales, but the foreman is unimpressed with his lack of experience, until another worker vouches for him; Sarlby, an former comrade-in-arms. Broad is hired, restarting the ovens after a gaggle of young boys sweep the chimneys. Sarlby tries to persuade him to join the Breakers, but Broad insists that he doesn’t want trouble. That is until one of the boys is burned to death in an oven due to a mistake by a drunken foreman. Broad is now a Breaker, and attends a meeting at a warehouse, where he meets Vick dan Teufel. As Valbeck erupts into insurrection, Broad builds a barricade to try and bring some stability to the city. Suddenly a desperate waif appears at the barricade being chased by some Burners. Broad takes her in, and she stays in his cramped two-room apartment for the rest of the insurrection, without him realising it is Savine dan Glokta. Meanwhile the Burners have taken prisoners, who would be useful hostage in any negotiations. Broad accompanies Vick to retrieve the prisoners. The leader of the Burners, Judge, is clearly a crazy-woman who has convicted and executed most of her prisoners in a kangaroo court, but Broad finds himself oddly drawn to her. Prince Orso eventually arrives, and brings the insurrection to a swift and peaceful conclusion. As the folk of Valbeck pour out of the city, rumours are soon rife that the Inquisition is pulling Breakers from the column for questioning. Broad fears that he’ll be next until the waif “Ardee” breaks from the line, announces herself as the daughter of Arch Lector Glokta, and pulls the Broad family from the line, as per an agreement with his daughter May. Broad and his family are given a lavish suite of rooms in Savine’s house in Adua. Gunnar is now her coachman, or so it seems. As soon as he witnesses her utter ruthlessness in business, he quickly figures out that his actual role as muscle to intimidate her partners.Category:Characters Category:Characters from the Union Category:POV characters